


Grieving Process

by Sakura_no_Umi



Series: Related verse [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Bridgette Gives the Best Advice, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25309729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakura_no_Umi/pseuds/Sakura_no_Umi
Summary: Papillion has been defeated. There was no fanfare. Only two teenagers left hurt and devastated, and Bridgette is here to help pick up the pieces. Things can't heal overnight, but she can only hope to set them on the right path.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Bridgette, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bridgette & Félix (Miraculous Ladybug PV), Bridgette & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Related verse [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820368
Comments: 11
Kudos: 82





	1. Marinette

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 5/1/2018. Two chapters, two experiences, two sides of the same mirror.

Marinette was exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically. She just wanted to curl up in her bed and not wake up for at least an entire week. She felt bad leaving Adrien behind with a stony face brother he had never mentioned, but Bridgette’s strong yet gentle hand on her back kept her marching out the front gates of the Agreste estate. On one hand she was thankful because she truly thought her legs would give out on her if Bridgette wasn’t there forcing her along.

They didn’t go back to the bakery, instead Bridgette guided her half asleep cousin back to her apartment via the necessary public transportation. Marinette didn’t take the journey in, instead images of Adrien’s heartbroken face plagued her memories, as they learned the misguided motivation for the villain. None of this was fair.

The cruel irony of choosing Papillion’s own son weighed heavily. Even though Chat Noir had been such a blessing, such an escape for Adrien, the black cat miraculous was cursed with bad luck and it seemed that no good deed went unpunished by the miraculous.

Marinette didn’t register when they actually made it to Bridgette’s apartment or that she was now currently curled up on Bridgette’s sofa with a blanket wrapped tightly around her hiding her from the world. A mug of tea was forced into her hand before the cushions next to her shifted and arms were pulling her close.

“I know you’re hurting too,” Bridgette spoke softly, slowing rubbing Marinette’s far shoulder.

Marinette’s head fell easily against Bridgette, and Bridgette responded by resting her head gently atop her cousins own.

“It’s not fair,” Marinette spoke, softly.

“It isn’t,” Bridgette agreed. “Both of them have been hurt so much in different ways.”

“He deserves to be happy, and school and Chat Noir were a chance for him to be happy, but not like this. Not as means to further his father’s own agenda or to pit him against his father.”

“It will take time, but he’ll learn to be happy again. They both will. We just have to be there for them.”

“Bridgette, I just left him there hurting,” Marinette replied, pulling away to look up at her cousin, the silent tear tracts visible on her cheeks.

“You left because I gave you no choice. He won’t resent you for it. He needs time to process, to get angry. He’d rather break down or yell at Felix, than to you. He cares about you Marinette. The last thing he wants to do is worry you, or make you worry about him. He doesn’t realize that last part is impossible, but his heart is in the right place. Besides you need time to process your own hurt too.”

“Do I even have any right to be hurt by this?”

“Of course you do. You’re hurting because someone you care about is hurting. You feel responsible because you figured out the identity of Papillion, and you knew you had to drag your partner into the most difficult situation of his life. You feel responsible in part for what he is going through, and anyone else in your shoes would.”

“Bridgette, how do you always know the right things to say?” Marinette asked, finally taking a sip of the tea her cousin had given her.

“Dealing with Felix Agreste give you nothing but wisdom. Besides I’m an adult. I’m supposed to know everything.”

Marinette let out a soft laugh, “Bridgette, you asked me for directions the other day.”

“Being directionally challenged does not correlate with knowledge, I’ll have you know.”

“Whatever you say,” Marinette replied, with a role of her eyes letting the tea work to soothe her.

“Since you just freed all of Paris, today I’ll let the sass slide,” Bridgette teased. “Now please get some rest you earned it.”

“I could have rested just as easily at my house.”

“Yeah right, you would have yo-yo-ed out of there at the first chance to check on Adrien. Sleep first, then we can go check on him.”

Marinette feigned a pout before sitting up and handing her cousin the empty mug. “Now are you going to get off the couch or do you expect me to sleep sitting up.”

“You’re so needy,” Bridgette chastised getting up to put the mug in the sink, “Now get some rest. You know where to find me if you need anything.”

Bridgette’s eyes drifted over to the sofa when she received no response, and was instead met with her cousin asleep as soon as her head had hit the throw pillow, wrapped haphazardly in the blanket as she hadn’t adjusted it as she had scooted to lay down. With a shake of her head, Bridgette grabbed another blanket from the closet and draped it over her cousin, before stepping into her own room to call her aunt to let her know Marinette would be spending the night.


	2. Adrien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 4/25/2018.

Bridgette did not think there would ever be a day when one Felix Agreste would willing ask her for her help, yet the proof sat their undeniably on her phone. Four little words that she read perfectly in his sullen tone, too proud to admit he was human to the girl he always tried to actively avoid.

She was over at Felix’s apartment in a heart beat shoving a mug of coffee between his hands at the kitchen table before he could even realize he had greeted her and allowed her entrance into his home. His brief look of bewilderment as he slowly stared at the mug returned to its sullen expression as his tight grip on the mug disturbed the smooth surface of the dark liquid inside.

For once Bridgette only waited, silent and watching from across the table. He had come to her on his own accord, and she could respect that. This was hard for him, for Adrien, and she could only be thankful that he wasn’t so stubborn to let them both flounder. Maybe because it was Adrien he was finally able to move on from his active avoidance he had started since they first met.

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Felix spoke slowly, giving the barest of nods to the closed door she was sure Adrien was behind.

“This isn’t something you fix, Felix. Yes later you two will have to fix the distance you placed in your relationship, but right now he just needs you to be there,” Bridgette replied, eyes full of knowledge Felix had never fathomed she could posses.

“You couldn’t hear him, he was miserable all night, and he’s refusing to eat,” Felix argued.

“And you’re a barrel of sunshine yourself,” Bridgette replied, her mouth moving in the barest of smirks. “You get some rest, and I’ll work on reminding Adrien what its like to smile, because lord knows you don’t know how.”

“You’re telling me to sleep after giving me caffeine.”

Bridgette shot him a flat look, “Felix, first of all you didn’t even touch it, and second of all you and I both know that’s decaf sitting in the pot over there.”

Felix turned his head away refusing to met her gaze.

“Fine grumpy pants, just work yourself into a state where neither one of you are capable of taking care of yourselves, and see how well that helps your situation,” Bridgette replied, getting up from the table and making her way to the closed door in the two bedroom apartment.

“Fine,” Felix conceded, knowing he had lost the battle before it even began.

She waited for Felix to disappear into his own room before gently knocking on the door and letting herself in after hearing a mumbled reply from the other side. For all she knew he had told her to go away, but Adrien was going to have to learn that Agreste boys simply did not get rid of Bridgette Cheng.

“Adrien,” she called softly, watching as he sat on the windowsill gaze focused on the city going about its day like nothing had changed. And really it hadn’t. Paris didn’t know it was saved from the threat of Papillion, or that its heroes were nursing invisible wounds.

“I know its hard to believe that grumpy pants has any other emotions besides looking like he just stepped in dog poop, but he’s really worried about you.”

“I know,” Adrien answered, softly, “but I don’t know what I’m feeling about this, let alone how I feel that he’s back, and how do you talk to someone you’ve haven’t see in six years?”

“He’s really like talking to a brick wall,” Bridgette sympathized, watching the way Adrien slightly shook the back of his head like he didn’t want to admit he found amusement in the comment. “As hilarious as it is to see Felix so worked up over getting a taste of his own medicine, I’m more worried about you. I know it hasn’t even been twenty four hours yet, and Felix is worrying himself up into a tizzy over something that hasn’t even crossed the border into time to be concerned territory, but I also knowing you are internalizing which is only going to make yourself break.”

“You know when my mom died,” Adrien began, voice soft and words deliberate as his arms pulled his legs even closer to him, “my father was devastated. Felix hadn’t returned once since going abroad for school, and father made sure not to contact him. I hadn’t quite figured out that Felix was dead to him, and he had long since set his sights on making me the perfect son that Felix had been too confrontational to be. Mom missed Felix just as much as me, but she always said he needed time to spread his wings and he would come back. I just didn’t understand how much father and Felix butted heads until yesterday. Father said he did all of this for me. He wanted to bring mom back so we could be a family again. Me, father, and mother with no trace of Felix. That was his perfect family. The one he didn’t have to be ashamed of, but that was also sad a family, because it was a broken family. Mom and I never stopped missing him even as father carried on like he only ever had one son.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Bridgette asked, softly from where she sat at the edge of the mattress.

“The thing about brick walls,” Adrien started, the faintest hint of amusement in his voice, “is that they don’t respond.”

Bridgette puffed her cheeks. He was going to kill him for stonewalling Adrien. She could deal with screaming into the void, but to have shut out his own brother and mother. Oh she was going to kick his ass for that one.

“They do crumble with enough force, but even I have to admit I only just broke through, and I’ve been chipping away at it for ten years now.”

“Why is he back now?”Adrien asked, frustration underlying his tone as his grip tightened.

“Because as stupid and as difficult as your brother is, he cares. I don’t blame you for giving up on trying to talk to him, but he’s not a complete monster. He could have kept ignoring me, ignoring you, but the moment he heard about the impending storm facing you, he was on the first flight out of America and agonizing over what to do once he got here.”

“You told him?” Adrien asked, head suddenly whipping around to face Bridgette, “but how did you know about any of this?”

“Marinette may have let a few things slip, mainly her suspicion of who the man behind the butterfly mask was. And whether it was true or not it was a good enough reason for Felix to get his butt back over here and behave like the proper older brother he should be. Adrien, I’ve seen how you look in the pictures Marinette has plaster on her walls. You aren’t happy. You’re lonely. It was time for you to remember what a family is.”

“Marinette told you?” he asked, hurt.

“I ambushed her in her room one afternoon when she returned from saving Paris. I’d had my suspicions before then, and just decided to force her hand because she would never voluntarily tell anyone. So then when this suspicion of hers was eating away at her heart she sought my advice. She didn’t want to ruin the life of the boy she cared about, and was worried about her partners reaction from his previous behavior. I don’t think it was until she was telling me all her fears that she began to suspect they were one in the same. I told her whoever Chat Noir was he deserved to know, because if the roles were reversed she would not have appreciated learning during a confrontation that some one she admired as a fashion designer was terrorizing the city.”

“Here I thought she had been so quick to condemn my father, and yet her heart is so big. She was worried about me, both of me, afraid to hurt either of us.”

“I think you knew that about her all along, Adrien,” Bridgette replied. “She’d rather see you happy and suffer silently herself.”

“You make it sound like she’s done it more than just this instance,” Adrien replied, frowning.

Bridgette worked very hard to suppress her giggle at the poor clueless boy in front of her because this was far from the atmosphere to make light of Paris’ very oblivious superheroes. “Marinette's going to hate that I’m going to tell you, but honestly I don’t think that item is something that was going to bring you joy anyway. Remember that blue scarf your father got you for your birthday?” Adrien’s face darkened, the joy he once felt for his father actually getting him a present squashed by his fathers transgression the past year. “Well Marinette had actually made that scarf to give to you for your birthday, but in typical Marinette fashion she forgot to sign the card and somehow it ended up being a gift from your father. She was so happy when you wore it to school the next day, but overheard you telling your friend it was from your father and you couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t take that away from you.”

Adrien sat there silently, mulling it over in his head. “How is she so strong?” he breathed.

“She’s miraculous,” Bridgette agreed, “just like a certain someone else I know.”

Adrien turned his head away shoulders hunching, visibly disagreeing with her assessment of him.

“I don’t know many people who, upon going to school for the very first time, would try and remove gum from a seat of person they don’t even know, and then when said person blamed them instead of thanked them that they would work so hard to try and gain their favor. I guarantee if Felix thought anyone put gum on his chair he would never speak to them again.”

“Personal experience?” Adrien asked, lip twitching as if afraid to smile.

“Nah,” Bridgette replied nonplussed, “I just watched him throw everything I tried to give him away. Even when I got him toffee which I know is his favorite. I swear I almost saw him hesitate that time.”

“Why have you put up with him for so long?” Adrien asked.

“That’s just how it is when you love someone. Sometimes you just have to wait until they are ready, and any other normal person their complete and utterly lack of respect for you would drive you insane, but when you’re in love you just brush it off. It’s only a phase. A faze that lasted ten years, but he honest to god text me ‘I need your help’ and I know he’s finally ready to admit he felt it too all those years ago. He was just scared to admit it, and thought that as long as I was kept at arms length I would finally disappear too.”

“I’m happy he has you, but honestly he doesn’t deserve you,” Adrien replied.

“And that’s why he’s lucky I put up with for so long, because if I didn’t take pity on him lord knows he would be forever alone.”

“He’d probably prefer it that way.”

“And you would have been left alone to sort through this mess, stuck in a toxic house, still not free, as Marinette and I tried desperately to help you while your father would have probably tried to shut you even farther away out of desperation. I’m glad I didn’t give up on Felix just so I know that you are going to be alright.”

“Why do you care about me so much?”

“Because you were the cutest little thing when I forced my way into your house for school projects that Felix didn’t know how he got stuck with me. Plus, you and your mom still greeted and welcomed me in even when Felix was abroad, and I was navigating my life through university and the sudden gap in my life now that I wasn’t constantly pestering your brother. You became like a little brother to me, and as Marinette can attest I care deeply about and I protect my family.”

“Thanks, Bridgette, for everything,” Adrien replied sincerely, turning to face her once again and showing her the first real smile she had seen of his in years.

“Anytime, Adrien. Now it would really make me feel better if I could coax you to eat something. It would make Felix feel better too, but I’d be happy to lie to him and watch him squirm if you’d rather.”

“Only if I can play you in Mecha-strike afterwords,” Adrien replied, getting up from the window sill.

“You’re about to see exactly where Marinette got her Mecha-strike skills from,” Bridgette replied, with a grin.

* * *

When Felix woke up from the sleep his body had desperately been craving, he was greeted by the sight of dirty dishes in the sink, and the sound of happy frustration from his brother as he tried desperately to beat one Bridgette Cheng in video games. He allowed a rare smile to grace his lips. Bridgette was a miracle worker, and he was extremely fortunate she had never given up on a complete jerk like him.

With a feigned sigh of being put out he rolled up his sleeves and tackled the dirty dishes. Bridgette and Adrien seemed not to notice, and he was thankful Bridgette had insisted on Felix taking her game console so it was there in case Adrien needed it. At some point they would return to the house and get some of Adrien’s stuff, but at least they had one immediate stress reliever/comfort immediately in place for his arrival.


End file.
